UNICEF warns of nutrition crisis in Borno, Nigeria

UNICEF found that in areas where Boko Haram militants had been in control, people were without water, food or sanitation, and one in five people risk dying every day.

The humanitarian programme warned that tens of thousands will die if treatment does not reach them soon.

Last month, a charity said people fleeing Boko Haram had starved to death.

The group's seven-year rebellion left 20,000 people dead and more than two million displaced.

“As more areas in north-eastern Nigeria become accessible to humanitarian help, the extent of the nutrition crisis affecting children is becoming more apparent,” UNICEF said.

It said that of the 244,000 children found to be suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Borno, almost one in five would die if they were not reached with treatment.

"Some 134 children on average will die every day from causes linked to acute malnutrition if the response is not scaled up quickly," said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF's regional director for Western and Central Africa.

"We need all partners and donors to step forward to prevent any more children from dying. No-one can take on a crisis of this scale alone"

"There are two million people we are still not able to reach in Borno state, which means that the true scope of this crisis has yet to be revealed to the world," Fontaine added, explaining that there are organisations on the ground doing great work, but none of us are able to work at the scale and quality that we need. “We must all scale up,” he reiterated.